Ghana call for action against Equatorial Guinea after fan injuries
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Version 0 of 1. Ghana have called for stiff action against the African Cup of Nations hosts, Equatorial Guinea, after Ghanaian supporters were injured in attacks by home fans during Thursday’s semi-final between the two countries. “It’s a pity that this dark cloud overshadows our success and we really need to see some stiff action taken by the Confederation of African Football,” said Kwesi Nyantakyi, the president of the Ghana Football Association and who is also a senior Caf executive. Caf will meet on Friday to discuss the incident, which follows swiftly after violent scenes at the weekend in which Tunisia players tried to attack a referee after they were eliminated by Equatorial Guinea in the quarter-final. About 500 Ghanaians had flown from Accra on chartered planes to watch their team and were placed in a section on the side of the stadium, away from the rest of the 15,000-capacity crowd at the Nuevo Estadio de Malabo. Home supporters aimed bottles at Ghana players and supporters, however, and the visiting team were forced to leave and re-enter the pitch under cover of riot police shields either side of half-time as the hosts went down 3-0. The game was halted again after 82 minutes and did not resume for another 40 minutes as the crowd was largely dispersed. Related: Ghana 3-0 Equatorial Guinea | Africa Cup of Nations semi-final match report Eventually the game was restarted in front of near-empty stands before the Gabonese referee, Eric Otogo, blew for full time five minutes early. The Ghanaians were then held back at the stadium for several hours while home supporters went on the rampage outside the stadium, upturning vendors’ goods and placing concrete boulders on the road. The Ghanaians were eventually bused back to Malabo airport. The Ghana coach, Avram Grant, praised his team’s attitude, saying: “I spoke a lot to the players about mentality. One of the things that is important in sports and in life as well, is to recover after you lost a game. “We spoke about what would happen if we win because we were in a tough group. They called our group the group of death, I call it the group of living.” Ghana now play Ivory Coast, who defeated the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday, in Sunday’s final. “This is part of life, you need to look for a solution to pick yourselves up,” Grant added. “I was looking for this from players and they did it well, they picked themselves up and they showed Ghana that they could count on them.” Trouble was ignited shortly before half-time when Ghana were awarded a penalty after 41 minutes, Jordan Ayew scoring after the Crystal Palace striker Kwesi Appiah had been fouled. Equatorial Guinea contested Otogo’s decision and were angered further when their attempts to restart the game while Ghana celebrated were pulled back. Bottles were hurled towards the visiting players and dugout, forcing the Ghana substitutes to seek refuge on the pitch beyond the crowd’s range. Shortly before half-time Wakaso Mubarak doubled the lead, whereupon the area around the tunnel was peppered again and Ghana’s players were made to wait for police to assemble before departing the pitch. Tannoy announcements attempted to calm the crowd when the players re-emerged for the second half but the situation descended into lawlessness 15 minutes from full-time. The prompt was a third Ghana goal, tapped in by André Ayew from Appiah’s pass. It led their segregated pocket of supporters, situated in the north-western corner of the stadium, to be attacked by adjacent home fans. The Ghana fans made a break for safety via a gate at the front of the stand and police attempted to lead them around the pitch. The scheme failed as they were trapped behind the goal, effectively flanked by uncontrollable crowds on three sides. A police helicopter then swooped within 30 feet of the crowd in the west stand, forcing the majority to scatter because of the noise and power of its rotors. It returned three more times, making its point firmly while smoke bombs were deployed in other areas of the stadium. A South African photographer was grazed by a rock thrown from the east end of the stadium. Ghana’s official Twitter feed described the scene as “like a war zone”. Other injuries occurred among officials, police and home supporters. “This kind of behaviour is just unacceptable,” Nyantakyi said. |